Bushfires kill thousands in wild
By Samson Zahn,WNS Australia Senior Correspondent
SYDNEY - Hundreds of thousands of native Australian animals such as koalas and kangaroos have been killed in bushfires that have burnt across southeast Australia in the past two weeks, wildlife officials said on Monday. The bushfires, which are still burning in three eastern states, have been so big and intense that wildlife officials fear some species may become extinct as the fires destroy large swathes of animal habitats. "The fires are so devastating and moving so quickly that animals just don't have a chance to get out of the way," said Pat O'Brien, president of the Wildlife Protection Association. "Because of the heat and the fireballs that are happening the animals are just bursting into flames and just being killed even before the fire gets to them because its so hot," O'Brien told Reuters on Monday.
Koalas and possums, which instinctively climb to the treetops for safety, would have had no chance of escaping the blazes, and kangaroos and bush birds would have been unable to outrun the fast-burning fires, he said. This meant a very real threat of seeing species unique to the burnt-out areas, such as frogs and birds, becoming extinct, O'Brien said. "These fires will directly contribute to the extinction of a number of species and we won't know the full effects for another 10 years," he said. "It takes 100 years for some animals to move back in an area, if there's any available to move back in. In the case of gliders, which are rare and endangered anyway, they may never come back ... they'll just go into extinction."
Fires in Victoria, Tasmania and New South Wales states have burnt more than 847,000 hectares (2 million acres). The worst fires are in Victoria where more than 4,000 firefighters are battling four large blazes which have blackened 750,000 hectares. Police say more than 30 homes have so far been razed. Firefighters said on Monday cooler conditions had eased the bushfire threat in the three eastern states but fires were still burning out of control. In Western Australia, a fire which has already destroyed 12,000 hectares is blazing unchecked.
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